Hundreds of Irish people including some Cork natives are set to return to Ireland today after being stuck in Peru due to a military lockdown for the last two weeks.
The Department of Foreign Affairs chartered a British Airways plane to collect the Irish citizens from the country’s capital Lima.
The special flight took off last night with 100 Irish on board and also individuals from 13 different EU countries, Cork Beo reports.
These passengers were previously told they would have to pay over €3,000 to get home, however all commercial flights in and out of the country were then cancelled, leaving government repatriation the only way they could return.
Tourists were given little to no notice of the measures and up to 100 Irish were left stuck.
Currently armed military are on patrol in Peru and people are only allowed leave their homes if they are going to supermarkets or pharmacies.
Following the implementation of the travel restrictions, Cork couple Andrew Cotter from Mitchelstown and Marie Barry from Conna were stranded in the city of Cuscu.
Andrew spoke to Red FM news this morning from Heathrow Airport and said they were delighted to be so close to home.
“We’re absolutely elated, along with the 100 other Irish people, and British people and other EU nationals who were on the flight this morning.
“It’s been a long day with a lot of travelling. We’ve been travelling for the last roughly 40-48 hours, starting with a 24 hour bus journey into Lima, which was unnecessarily delayed with Peruvian authorities and all the rest of it, so we were very nervous.
“We just made the flight on time, they held the flight for us.
“Overall we’re so happy and we’re so thankful to everyone for helping us out.”
